I am a dealer, specialising in Russian Area and East European Philately. You can contact me at
patemantrevor@gmail.com
You can also find material from my specialised stock in the regular online auction at www.filateliapalvelu.com
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Thursday, 6 December 2012

Armenia 1920 Combined Surcharges

I was browsing Philasearch today and looked at the Armenia on offer or recently offered. I was pleased to see that Viennafil had sold a Combined Surcharge for 180 €uro + commissions. The stamp was genuine (Congratulations, Viennafil, you are doing better than many auction houses!) and the price seemed about right: Michel's 2200 €uro for this stamp (Michel 111) is too high.

Combined Surcharges are not common and they are not very popular: they can look very messy with the rouble surcharge over the framed or unframed Z. Quite often, one of the overprints is forged in an attempt to create a more valuable stamp from a less valuable one.

When I checked my stockbook, I found I had five copies of the type sold by Viennafil: see the image above.
On closer inspection, I think all my five and the Viennafil copy may be from the same sheet. The basic shade of the 35 kopeck stamp is the same and - more to the point - the perforation is slightly off centre: the design is close to the perforations at top and left hand side. It's quite possible that only one sheet with this particular combination was produced: the large Z in violet is not common as a basic stamp.

The stamp is a nice example of a combined surcharge because the fact that the large Z is in violet and the 10 rouble surcharge in black allows you to see what has happened more clearly than when both overprints are black (I don't think they are ever both violet).

Anyway, Christmas is coming: if any collector wants one of the stamps above, then my price is 180 €uro with no extra charges for postage. I advise against the fourth stamp from the left which has one short perforation. The third stamp from left is with a tiny hinge remainder; the other stamps are never hinged. Probably, they all came to me when I bought the Tchilingirian - Ceresa holding of the Combined Surcharges.